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There was, Mr. Johnston said, a superterrestrial influence in addition 

 to other influences that affected the death-rate in certain years, and 

 which interfered with the death-rates independent of such local 

 influences as sanitation, accidents, war, etc. The next diagram showed 

 what affected the health and the death-rate, independently of other 

 matters that pertained to artificial arrangements. This demonstrated 

 the nef^essity for having death-rate tables prepared which did not 

 merely show the total death-rate of a city or country. The total 

 death-rate was in itself an uncertain index of the comparative health, 

 because, primarily, it concealed the true cause or causes which pro- 

 duced a high or low total death-rate, mixing up deaths from non- 

 preventable causes (old age, or the natural termination of a healthy 

 life) with deaths from preventable causes ; it ignored the influence 

 of migration, which, introducing a large proportion of young people, 

 may lower the total death-rate by as much as 3 or 4 per 1,000 persona 

 living without the slightest alteration in the percentage dying at 

 each age, or of any cause affecting preventable disease. The normal 

 natural death-rate varies extremely with age in every place and 

 country. In young lives under 5 it varied in Australasia in a 

 favourable year— 1893— between 26*96 and 41*45 per 1,000 living, 

 with a mean of 37*37 per 1,000 living. The death-rate for ages 

 between 5 and 65 years ranged from 5*90 to 8*84 per 1,000 living, 

 with a mean of 6*84 per 1,000 only. On the other hand the death- 

 rate of lives 65 and over ranged from 69 42 to 80*44; with a 

 mean of 76 per 1,000 living. It therefore followed that it entirely de- 

 pended upon the proportions of people living at each age, whether the 

 total death-rate is high or low, even where the specific rate at each 

 age-group is the same, and where the health-rate for each specific cause 

 is equal. A high total death-rate is simply inevitable, therefore, if 

 the proportion of old ages in any country or town be abnormally 

 large, even if it were the healthiest country or city in the world. This 

 is the true reason why Hobart suburbs have invariably a much higher 

 death rate than the Hobart city, and why the death. rate of Hobarb 

 and suburbs is a little higher than Sydney, Brisbane, and Wellington, 

 A diagram was presented showing the typhoid death-rate in Hobart. 

 It rose in 1887 to an extreme point, due to causes which could 

 not be explained, whilst during the last three years it had been very 

 low. Then came the diagram showing the mortality from preventable 

 diseases, and indicating a great fall in the numbers during the past 

 10 years. Then came a table showing how there was the same rise and 

 fill in the number of typhoid cases in the other colonies, proving that 

 there were other unknown influences at work irrespective of anything 

 local. Mr. Johnston referred in detail to the typhoid fever epidemic 

 of 1887. It led to a keen inquiry as to the sanitary condition of the 

 city, many believing it was due to local causes, such as defective 

 drainage, but there was something beyond that. During the last three 

 years, fortunately, the city had been very free from typhoid. Indeed, 

 the death-rate from preventable causes had never been so low before, 

 and had had the effect of raising the city into a healthier state than 

 that of any other period in its history, and had constituted it 

 pre-eminently as among the healthiest cities in the world. Yet, there 

 was no doubt the sanitary provisions had had very little to do with 

 it, for there was a similar decline, correspondingly, in the other 

 Australian cities. The cause of this decline must be common to all. In 

 regarding the healthfulness of Hobart they must make clear the 

 difference between a total death-rate and a health standard, as already 

 indicated ; as over 20 per cent, of the total death-rate of Hobart is 

 composed of the numbers of those who die of old age it may be seen 

 how misleading it would be to compare its health with the other 

 cities named on the basis of total death-rate from all causes, including 



